Even now, Ollie Arblaster struggles to fully comprehend how he went from playing in League One to captaining his beloved Sheffield United away at Manchester United as a Premier League player in the space of four months.
It's the sort of tale that would make even Roy Race blush, if he were real. But while it might have all the hallmarks of a fairytale, it was reality for Arblaster, the boyhood Blade who went from standing on the Kop to starring in front of it.
Arblaster's love story with the Blades runs deep; deeper, in fact, than his first foray into the club's academy, which occurred when he was aged just six.
"As a kid who had been to games, seeing first team players walking around the building, having photos with them and stuff, it was amazing," says Arblaster, who managed to get a snap with one of his Sheffield United idols, Billy Sharp, in front of the Kop during his stint as a ball-boy at Bramall Lane. He would go on to train alongside him after progressing to the senior ranks and even shared the pitch with Sharp on his debut.
"To be playing League One, make my Premier League debut against Arsenal and then playing every week and captaining the team at Old Trafford...you couldn't really write that story," the 21-year-old continues.
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Long before gracing the hallowed turf of The Emirates or Old Trafford, he recalls memories of kicking a ball around with his grandad, Brian. Football is in the Arblaster genes: Brian was a goalkeeper who represented Sheffield United, Chesterfield and Barnsley among others. He and Arblaster's father were among the youngster's biggest footballing influences growing up.
Though he followed in his grandfather's footsteps by playing professionally, he didn't go down the goalkeeper route. Not that he didn't try. "I'd always volunteer to go in [goal], even at grassroots level. I've got good reflexes," Arblaster quips.
"Even to this day, I look at the keeper training and always think, 'I'd love to do a session as a keeper'. I always looked at it and thought [being a goalkeeper] looked fun but I wasn't tall enough."
Instead, he went down a different path in midfield. Fortunately,his frame did not prevent Arblaster from being earmarked for greatness at Shirecliffe long before he made his senior debut at the age of just 18 in the Carabao Cup at West Brom.
Arblaster is speaking to Mirror Football to mark EFL Youth Development week. Last season, academy-developed players across the EFL made 265 professional debuts and played more than 244,000 minutes. Arblaster is just one of many success stories enjoyed by an academy who previously nurtured Harry Maguire and Kyle Walker, two cornerstones of the England national team until recently, in their formative years.
That's not say his journey was linear. Arblaster's affinity with the club would both enhance and complicate facets of his journey, not that he would change anything. He concedes that one of his biggest challenges was making the transition from fan to first-teamer. "I used to get pulled in and told I need to stop being a fanboy," he recalls. "I think sometimes I was that. Just being there was unreal for me and I was caught up a bit sometimes. I don't think I really felt like I belonged.
"I found that really tough at first because I was such a big fan; we had that amazing Prem season and I was just in the Kop with my friends, we'd go home and away.
"But you've got to get out of that fan zone environment if you're going to get in the team. I feel like that's what I did more and more. The more I trained [with the first team] the more comfortable I'd get, the more confident I'd get. Then the switch flipped in my head and it just took off."
If Arblaster was forged in the Blades academy, then his talents were honed during a stint in the Potteries. An opportunity to join Port Vale on loan in the summer of 2023 presented itself at a time where all parties accepted Arblaster was unlikely to add to his five appearances from the season before following Sheffield United's promotion back to the Premier League. Regular action in League One would prove to be the prelude to Arblaster's boom period.
"I felt like I was close [to the first team] but also far away at the same time. I'd always I had this tunnel vision of just coming through, and then playing, playing, and playing for the first team," Arblaster admits.
The reality of leaving the club to play elsewhere - even temporarily - was tough to digest, even though he himself admits he was at a point where he needed to play. In hindsight, his stint at Vale was the making of him; something Arblaster himself now acknowledges.
"I came on when we were 7-0 down at Barnsley and I thought, 'Jesus, what have I got myself into here?'," he quips. Thankfully, things improved. Arblaster grew in stature and blossomed at a club that now holds a special place in his heart. As the cliche goes, he arrived a boy and left a man.
"The loan changed me as a person. I had to go and grow up and realise the reality of playing men's football. I'd love to replay [the loan] and see how it all unfolded because you're just so involved in it at the time. It's only after [it's done] you realise how good a time it actually was.
"As a club, they helped me as much off the pitch as they did on it. They have been a massive influence in terms of me being who I am today."
A promising young player impressing on his first loan may hardly jump off the page but from there, Arblaster's story went well and truly off script. The dynamic midfielder's pilgrimage to Vale Park would prove to be the catalyst for a Bramall Lane recall and, eventually, a Premier League debut at Arsenal: the stuff dreams are made of, if you can overlook the 6-0 scoreline. Regular appearances followed. Things then went one step further when Arblaster led the team out at Old Trafford; an unforgettable moment in a campaign that most with a Sheffield United persuasion are still trying their best to forget.
"It was tough. We were obviously getting beat week in, week out. But I had to look at it as an opportunity of coming in to play and stake my claim as a Sheffield United player.
"I just took it game by game. I was walking out at Old Trafford and I kind of feel like that's just what you get when you work hard and you really focus on what you want to achieve."
That small taste of jostling with England's elite has only whetted Arblaster's appetite. We speak 10 months to the day he sustained the ACL injury that robbed him of the opportunity to star in a promotion push which was halted in the most abrupt and sobering fashion possible at Wembley in the form of defeat in the play-off final.
"I went from one of the best moments of my football career to the worst just like that. [The last 10 months] have been full of challenges - mentally more than anything - but I'm feeling good. I've had a good balance; the club have given me breaks when I've needed them. I've stayed strong and hopefully I can come out the other end as a better person."
There is, at least, light at the end of the tunnel as he nears a return. Not that Arblaster is looking too far ahead. Every rehab session ticked off is another step closer, though, to once again doing what he's always wanted to: playing for his beloved Sheffield United.
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